Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,143,360 members, 7,780,985 topics. Date: Friday, 29 March 2024 at 06:53 AM

PDP Reps Caucus Splits, Chinda, Elumelu Emerge Factional Leaders - Politics - Nairaland

Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / PDP Reps Caucus Splits, Chinda, Elumelu Emerge Factional Leaders (341 Views)

Wike Appoints Chinda As Senior Special Assistant On Land, Urban Planning / Kingsley Chinda Emerges Minority Leader, House Of Representatives / APC Reps Caucus Endorses Tinubu For President (2) (3) (4)

(1) (Reply)

PDP Reps Caucus Splits, Chinda, Elumelu Emerge Factional Leaders by victorDanladi: 7:40am On Jul 04, 2019
PDP Reps caucus splits, Chinda, Elumelu emerge factional leaders




Plenary at the House of Representatives turned rowdy on Wednesday after the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila , read a letter from some members of the minority political parties in the chamber on the list of nominated principal officers .
Temper rose at about 2 .30 pm when the Speaker announced that he had received a letter from the minority members containing the names of principal officers .


A member of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Kingsley Chinda, however, interrupted Gbajabiamila who was reading the letter said to have been signed by 99 of the 146 members of the various minority parties in the house.
Chinda cited Order 6 Rule 1 of the House Standing Orders, stating that members of minority party in the chamber shall choose from among themselves someone with experience to lead them. He argued that where the house rule was not clear on the procedure, the lawmakers should follow precedence or a resolution of the house .
Chinda noted that the PDP being the majority opposition party had written to the Speaker and had nominated him ( Chinda ) to be the Minority Leader . He added that the party had also nominated Chukwuka Onyema as Deputy Minority Leader , Yakubu Barde as Minority Whip, and Muraina Ajibola as Deputy Minority Whip.
He urged the Speaker to follow the precedence of the chamber by adopting the list of lawmakers sent by the party.


Gbajabiamila , however , ruled Chinda out of order, arguing that there were nine minority political parties and that the PDP alone could not determine who to lead them.
As the Speaker continued reading the controversial letter, several lawmakers protested and went for the mace.



The Sergeants - at- Arms close to the mace also rushed forward to retrieve it from the protesters . Several lawmakers and security men formed a shield around the chamber ’s symbol of authority.
The situation , however , did not deter the Speaker, who went on to read out the letter announcing Ndudi Elumelu as Minority Leader; Toby Okechukwu as Deputy Minority Leader; Gideon Gwani as Minority Whip; and Adesegun Adekoya as Deputy Minority Whip.
In the midst of the tension , Gbajabiamila adjourned plenary till Thursday.
Security men had a hectic time ushering Gbajabiamila and guarding the mace out of the chamber , amidst cheers and jeers .



However, at a press briefing after the plenary, the Chinda -led faction faulted Gbajabiamila for reading the letter from other opposition members and ignoring the one sent by the PDP.
Chinda said , “ First, we speak to you as members of the minority caucus in the House of Representatives . Let us very sincerely apologise to you and to Nigerians for the fracas that took place today in the house . It is not in our character as very responsible people. It is not our wish that we should go that way. It is also not proper. But as parliamentarians , we will not sit down and see our rights being trampled upon. So , we sincerely apologise to Nigerians .



“ The issues are that of the minority leadership. It is standard parliamentary practice that in parliament , minority leadership comes from amongst minority parties and the correspondence is always sent by the major minority party. In our case, that was followed . The PDP held discussions with other minority parties , agreed on a leadership in the parliament and forwarded a letter to Mr Speaker, dated 21 st of June , 2019 . A copy of the letter was received on the 26 th of June , 2019 .


“ Yesterday , the Senate, in compliance with democratic practice, read out the letters from the APC and the PDP . Of course, there were dissenting voices . The President in his wisdom advised senators who were aggrieved to go back to their parties and resolve the issues.
“However and very unfortunately , in the House of Representatives , the reverse is the case. We came today only to hear our dear Speaker attempting to read what he termed as correspondence from a conglomerate of political parties , that some members had endorsed some other persons as minority leaders aside from the one that was forwarded to him by the party. ”
According to him, the PDP has met with other minority parties twice in order to comply with Order 7 Rule 8 of the House Standing Orders which stipulates that minority “ parties” should elect their leaders.


“ In spite of this , we are taken aback to attend plenary today and see this ambush. It is unfortunate; it is very unparliamentary; we are not going to take it, we must do things properly, ” Chinda stated .


But addressing journalists in company with some members of his faction after the session , Elumelu argued that his emergence as Minority Leader was in accordance with the rules .
He said , “ We are here to speak to Nigerians , but most importantly to also reaffirm or reintroduce the newly appointed , elected , endorsed and nominated minority leaders of this great chamber . I will first of all say that graciously, God has so made it that my colleagues in the nine minority parties have so nominated me as their minority leader.


“Let me clearly state that we are all from nine political parties and for some us who are from the PDP, we are very loyal to the PDP; we believe in PDP’ s progress , we believe in the ideology of the PDP and we have no other party than the PDP. ”
Elumelu explained that his emergence complied with Order 7 Rule 8 , which he said empowered members from minority parties to nominate those who should be their leaders


https://www.punchng.com/pdp-reps-caucus-splits-chinda-elemelu-emerge-factional-leaders/
Re: PDP Reps Caucus Splits, Chinda, Elumelu Emerge Factional Leaders by CapitanS: 7:45am On Jul 04, 2019
These PDP reps don't have sense

(1) (Reply)

Pay My Pension, 104-year-old WW Ll Veteran Urges FG / RUGA: Governors Reveal Only Way Herdsmen Can Enter South-east / Nuhu Ribadu: Children Of Herdsmen, Bandits Needs Education

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 22
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.